What do you need to develop a product? First, an idea. Then follows a long, long cycle of product development. That takes a lot of time, energy, a staff of professionals, and a proper leader. To arrive at a profitable product, a business has to go through several phases. In this blog post, we examine the main stages of product development. We will go through:
- Idea generation
- Idea screening
- Concept development and testing
- Marketing strategy and business analysis
- Product development
- Deployment
- Product launch
Let’s start!
Idea Generation/Ideation
It all begins with an idea. Here is your chance to dazzle, help, and innovate! The exciting stage where you’re not pulled in by the reigns or reality just yet. In the ideation stage, the main goal is to brainstorm useful product ideas and come to a doable product concept founded on customer needs and market research.
When developing an idea, keep these things in mind:
- Target market – You need to build a product that corresponds with your consumer’s profile.
- Existing products – Before you get hellbent on changing the world, do thorough market research to find out if someone already did so.
- Functionality – Sure, you don’t need a detailed feature list just yet, but you do need a general idea of what your product will be able to do.
- SWOT analysis – Do a thorough analysis of the possible advantages and disadvantages, as well as risks, of your product.
- SCAMPER method – This brainstorming method is a favorite among product developers.
And of course, write a thorough business case to see if your team can do it.
Idea Screening
Once you come up with some viable ideas, it’s time to go deeper. Screening ideas means you will be discarding the ideas that aren’t worth pursuing. And that depends on a few factors.
Ask yourself:
- Is the product technically feasible?
- Does the product have marketing potential?
- What improvements will the product probably need?
- Why should customers want this?
This is where cross-functionality comes into play. Different teams can come together to help out. Also, this is the stage where proper risk assessment needs to be done.
Finally, this is where budgeting should begin.
Concept Development and Testing
A product concept is a more in-depth representation of the concept in understandable consumer terms.
Testing is the correct step to take after developing a thoroughly planned concept. The consumer should be able to picture the concept if it has been effectively crafted. Introduce your idea to a select group of potential customers, then evaluate:
- Do customers know what it is?
- Is it beneficial?
- Do they expect it from your business?
These are crucial questions that you should research for your product. If you’re unsure if you can answer all of them, hire an experienced product development consultancy that has experience in your industry.
Once you’ve made the necessary modifications, test each iteration of your proposal to find the one that yields the best results.
Marketing Strategy and Business Analysis
Reviewing the product’s profit forecasts, anticipated costs, and sales projections are all part of business analysis. You can proceed with creating an initial marketing strategy for your product if the analysis meets your company’s goals. A great marketing strategy has a lot of pre-launch activities that have the goal of creating a buzz around your product before it launches. The positioning, pricing, and advertising of your new product will all be driven by marketing. You will be in a better position to assess how appealing the idea is once the marketing approach has been established.
When developing the marketing strategy, take into account the target audience and the sort of channels they use when searching for new products.
Product Development
At this stage of the product development process, your product is prepared to be turned into a prototype or the initial version of a product.
The product will be tangibly in your hands, and you will test it. The overall process involves learning by trial and error. You can get feedback from customers on your product’s design, shape, and build quality.
You can modify and enhance your prototype in response to their feedback. Before moving on to the next stage, your product should be in its best state.
Deployment
Once the Minimal Valuable Product (MVP) has been made, it’s time to move from development to deploying the product in the live environment. This cycle deals with embracing the DevOps culture and incorporating the CI/CD pipeline.
The various stages of implementation include:
- Commit
- Build
- Alpha Deployment
- Beta Deployment
- Production Deployment
Product Launch
So now you have a successful product that is ready to launch into the market. The launch of your product is the last phase in this process! The product development team now turns the initiative over to marketing for the introduction of the product to the world.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the money for pricey advertisements. By employing the following strategies, you can still execute a successful market strategy:
- Emailing your subscriber list about the new product
- Working on an affiliate marketing campaign with influencers
- Getting placement for your product in gift guides
- Make Instagram shopping available
- Get feedback from first customers
Final Word
When you’re finished with your product development phases, you’ll have brought your brainstorming ideas to reality and developed a tangible product that solves your customer needs! And if all goes well, you’ll have created a useful strategy to use in the future that will help you continue to innovate and create products, giving customers the experiences they desire.